The Origins of Public Relations
Chapter 1: The Origins of Public Relations
4 Place: Where will the product be on sale? Where can the service be availed of?
5 Process: What is the process for purchasing? What’s the purchasing journey for the customer. For example when purchasing an airline ticket, what is the process that a customer goes through?
6 People: Who are the people involved in the purchase? E.g. shop assistants, customer service representatives, health workers, etc.
7 Physical Evidence: What does the customer receive when purchase has been made. For example a ticket for a concert, a ‘receipt of order’
email from an online purchase.
Chapter 1: The Origins of Public Relations
The question that crops up repeatedly is where public relations sits within the Marketing Mix.
According to The Excellence Theory, public relations is independent from marketing and should not be sublimated to marketing. The reality is that public relations and marketing have the same priority – to assist the business in generating revenue and achieving its long term goals. However public relations is ultimately concerned with the role the long term reputation of the organisation has in achieving this aim and marketing is concerned with the immediate sales of an organisation’s products and / or services to assist the business in achieving this aim. Unfortunately, a clear lack of understanding within certain areas as to what public relations is often results in public relations being shoehorned into a marketing department. To understand the difference between public relations and the other areas of marketing, it is important to understand the three main categories of public relations:
corporate, consumer and public affairs. An brief explanation of each of these is provided in the figure below. A more detailed explanation is offered in Chapters 8 (PR for Business) and 9 (Public Affairs and Political Communications).
Figure X – Categories of PR
One of the core functions of public relations is to protect and enhance an organisation’s reputation. According to Reptrak the reputation data and insights company, reputation is an
‘intangible value that defines up to 84% of the market value for a company’ and can yield 2.5 times better stock performance for companies when compared to the overall market.
(Reptrak, 2021). PR works to build the reputation of an organisation by creating a narrative around the organisation and its products and services. Consumer public relations works to tell the story of the product or service, corporate public relations is concerned with the narrative of the company and its representatives, political public relations aims to tell the story of the political party or campaign and public affairs is concerned predominantly with
Corporate PR
Tells the story of a brand or organisation
Consumer PR
Tells the story of a product or
service
Political PR
Tells the story of a political party /
campaign
Public Affairs
Concerned with policy change and
lobbying
Chapter 1: The Origins of Public Relations
lobbying and trying to effect policy change. Public affairs is very different from the other types of public relations as it tends to be more reliant on stakeholder as opposed to media relations to achieve its aims. We will come back to this in the later chapter on political public relations and public affairs.
An example of this could be Benecol’s awareness campaign for National Cholesterol Month which was launched in the UK in 2021 (Nelson, 2021). Former UK Olympic sprinter and hurdler, Colin Jackson fronted the public information campaign from the healthy food
producer, Benecol to encourage awareness of Cholesterol issues and to motivate people to get their cholesterol checked. Advertising for this campaign would involve ads on digital, radio, TV and online featuring Colin Jackson advertising Benecol, including the Benecol logo and promoting its cholesterol lowering properties. Ads would offer a call to action and direct viewers to a place of purchase, for example online or in stores. On the other hand,
consumer public relations for this campaign might involve delivering a nicely presented box of cholesterol products to influencers and journalists in online lifestyle sites, magazines and supplements in weekend newspapers accompanied by a press release and telling them how Benecol can help to lower cholesterol and why this is important. A press release could also be issued to journalists on this topic accompanied by an image of the product in the hope that the journalists and influencers would write about it or discuss it on their platforms because it is in the interest of their audience. This is consumer PR as it is helping to tell the story of the product or service. Corporate public relations on the other hand might include the drafting of a press release outlining why people need to lower their cholesterol, explaining the effects of high cholesterol and announcing Colin Jackson as the campaign ambassador. This press release would be sent to all news media accompanied by a photograph with Colin Jackson and possibly with a representative from Benecol without logos or branding. The aim of this is to achieve media coverage that would seek to inform people as to why lowering cholesterol is important for National Cholesterol Month. This serves to promote the Benecol brand also and further its reputation as a brand that has its customers’ best interests and health at heart. Finally in terms of public affairs, as part of the launch strategy, the brand could be part of a consortium of health food brands that is lobbying the government for the introduction to changes in food labelling for example for products that are high in cholesterol and therefore damaging to people’s health. They could also be involved in lobbying for the introduction of a national cholesterol screening
programme for those in the at risk group. This is an example of lobbying at work.
Political public relations would not play a part in a campaign such as this. However, to give an example of it, if for instance a new cholesterol screening programme was introduced in
Chapter 1: The Origins of Public Relations
due course, this could be official launched by the Minister for Health with a photoshoot and video explaining why his / her department introduced it and how it will affect voters. The purpose of this for the politician is to further his or her reputation which will ultimately contribute towards votes.
The final item to consider when it comes to the communications mix is news media. Often public relations students might find it hard to identify and to differentiate a news story from a public relations story. For example, in the case of the Benecol story above, this might present in the general news as a story about the importance of lowering cholesterol for general health. The first thing to think about is where in the news site is the story positioned.
If it is on the home page for example, the story would most likely be a general news story that is being featured of its own accord. Often stories for example in the business section of a news website, may be generated by public relations. Secondly, it’s important to put yourself into the mind of the journalist. Think about the journalist turning up for work and sitting down to write a story. Think about how they sourced the story. Are they writing about a general election in the United States for example, or the latest outbreak of a disease or a plane crash? If so, then these items are most likely topical news stories. However, if they are discussing positive news from a company, such as the hiring of new staff, the launch of a new product or service or its annual financial results, then these are most likely stories generated by public relations as they seek to further the reputation of the organisation.
These stories would have most likely come to the attention of the journalist through the company itself and this indicates that the stories have been generated through public relations.
This chapter has set out to inform the reader as to what public relations and how it performs in action, though the analysis of the various responses from governments and the WHO to the Covid-19 pandemic. A look at the various professional bodies for public relations within countries offers a description as to how public relations is practiced and similarities can be found between these. The Mexico Definition provides us with an internationally relevant definition of public relations that sets out its role as a means of two way communication between an organisation and its publics, to analyse trends and predict consequences that enable organisations to communicate effectively. A look that the history of public relations offers an insight into its origins which are aligned with the advent of World Wars I and II when communications were used extensively by wartime strategists and then adapted by
‘Big Business’. The growth of ‘Mass Media’ offered more access to the public to the news and more channels for businesses and governments through which to communicate to reach wider audiences. This growth has continued to this day with the emergence of the internet,
Chapter 1: The Origins of Public Relations
online and social media. Communication from organisations and political leaders as has been demonstrated in history has not always been used for the greater good and an awareness and understanding of this is key to the continued successful practice of ethical public relations.
7. For Discussion
To follow are discussion points on the key topics raised in this chapter: